During a Fort Smith Board of Directors study session in July, At-Large Director Kevin Settle told the advisory board’s chairwoman, Cheryl Gilmore, and other board members that “the grilling of the Humane Society director in a public forum” did not match any of the 11 subjects directors asked the advisory board to address.

“I want to say I’m sorry, from myself, that we did not come to defend you, and that we allowed that to happen,” advisory board member Tammy Trouillon told Barton on Wednesday. “We should have stepped in and said enough is enough.”

“I felt like a worm on a hot rock,” board member and veterinarian Jon Remer recalled. “It was like watching a bus go off the cliff, and I’m in the back seat.”

Wednesday’s discussion focused on how the advisory board and Humane Society can work together.

Humane Society board president Patrick Jacobs said he’d like to see the advisory board help implement a spay and neuter program.

“That’s what I would like to see come about — working together with the other organizations, with the local vets, and working toward that,” he said. “The only way we’re going to be able to fix the problem is lessening the burden of the animals coming in. That’s a feral cat program and spay and neutering.”

Remer said he was hesitant about addressing feral cats.

“The only two things out of our original task force (Fort Smith directors) did not approve was feral cat control and the feeding giving rise to stewardship — if you feed a cat, a herd of cats, they’re your cats,” he said. “Those are the only things they told us not to do, so we’re leery, even though we think we need to do it.”

The new, three-year contract includes incremental increases in daily per animal fees. The Humane Society is also asked to follow guidelines set forth by the Humane Society of the United States.

“We added the guidelines where we could adhere to them,” Jacobs said. “The only things we couldn’t adhere to was the type of dog food that we fed, because that’s all donated for the most part. The other one was accepting dogs at no charge, and we couldn’t do that.”

Pet owners who surrender their animals to the Humane Society are charged $25.

In 2012, the city spent $270,098 with the Humane Society. Fort Smith anticipates spending $299,066 this year.